Molecular Biology

Monell调查人员的主要专长范围广泛：分析化学和化学生态学(金博尔、史密斯和普雷菲博士)，生物化学和生物物理学(布兰德和马戈尔斯基博士)，分子和细胞生物学(黄、马戈尔斯基和王博士)，遗传学和神经科学(巴赫马诺夫、比彻姆、盖尔佩林、洛、里德、赖塞特、托尔多夫和雅马斯基博士)，内分泌学和生理学(弗里德曼、马戈尔斯基、特夫、威索基和赵博士)，心理物理学(布雷斯林、道尔顿、伦德斯特罗姆、门内拉、佩尔查特和威斯博士)和临床研究(考瓦特和特夫博士)。其中许多实验室缺乏分子生物学方面的主要专业知识，但仍希望在研究中利用分子生物学技术。雇佣具有分子技能的技术人员或博士后可以满足这些需求，但考虑到在化学感官上带来的多种技术带来的许多问题，聘请单独的实验室成员来解决每一项所需的技术是不现实的。此外，将产生模型生物体所需的所有分子生物学步骤外包出去也将是相当昂贵的。在Monell，一个更常见的解决方案是与拥有分子生物学专业知识的同事合作。事实上，合作在莫内尔非常常见，考虑到该中心对化学感官的关注，双方的兴趣经常存在。然而，我们的努力往往是 分子生物学家已经完全致力于其他项目。因此，拥有一个分子生物学核心，在需要的基础上提供这些专门的服务，并在这种技术方面培训工作人员，将满足我们许多实验室的持续需求。 这一核心将提供多个分子生物学技术的核心经验来源，这些技术在每个单独的实验室复制将是低效的，特别是那些分子生物学不是主要重点的技术。此外，分子生物学所需试剂和设备的集中采购比多个实验室多个独立采购更具成本效益。考虑到转基因和基因敲除小鼠的昂贵和严格的工作性质，准确和有效地完成产生工程模型生物的步骤是很重要的。这一核心将使事先没有分子生物学知识或专业知识的PI能够在合理的时间和合理的成本下，在专家的协助下生产转基因动物模型和细胞系。 在莫内尔大学目前的26个教研组中，22个(85%)将受益于这个核心提供的分子方法。在我们研究基地的13笔R01赠款中，有10笔(77%)将使用核心将提供的分子方法和服务。核心服务的提供扩展了参与实验室的能力，超出了每个实验室自身能力的空白。

The primary expertise of Monell investigators ranges broadly: analytical chemistry and chemical ecology (Drs. Kimball, Smith, and Prefi), biochemistry and biophysics (Drs. Brand and Margolskee), molecular and cellular biology (Drs. Huang, Margolskee, and Wang), genetics and neuroscience (Drs. Bachmanov, Beauchamp, Gelperin, Lowe, Reed, Reisert, Tordoff, and Yamazki), endocrinology and physiology (Drs. Friedman, Margolskee, Teff, Wysocki, and Zhao), psychophysics (Drs. Breslin, Dalton, Lundstrom, Mennella, Pelchat, and Wise), and clinical research (Drs. Cowart and Teff). Many of these laboratories lack primary expertise in molecular biology but still wish to utilize molecular biological techniques in their research. Hiring molecularly skilled technical staff or postdocs can address these needs, but given the multiple techniques brought to bear on many problems in the chemical senses, it is not practical to hire individual lab members to address each needed technique. Also, it would be quite costly to contract out all the molecular biological steps needed to generate a model organism. A more common solution at Monell is to enter into collaborations with colleagues that have molecular biology expertise. Indeed, collaborations are very common at Monell, and given the Center's focus on chemical senses, mutual interest is frequent. However, often the efforts of our molecular biologists are already fully committed to other projects. Thus, having a Molecular Biology Core to provide these specialized services on an as-needed basis and to train staff in such techniques will address ongoing needs in many of our laboratories. This Core will provide a central resource of experience in multiple molecular biological techniques that would be inefficient to replicate in each individual laboratory, especially those for which molecular biology is not a primary focus. In addition, centralized purchasing of the reagents and equipment needed for molecular biology is more cost-effective than multiple independent purchases by several labs. Given the costly and exacting nature of work with transgenic and knockout mice, it is important that the steps to generate engineered model organisms be done accurately and efficiently. This Core will enable PIs with no prior knowledge or expertise in molecular biology to produce genetically modified animal models and cell lines with expert assistance in reasonable time and for a reasonable cost. Of the 26 current Faculty research groups at Monell, 22 (85%) will benefit from the molecular approaches provided by this Core. Of the 13 R01 grants in our Research Base, 10 (77%)) will use the molecular approaches and services the Core will provide. The availability of Core services extends the capabilities of the participating laboratories beyond the nidus of each laboratory's own capabilities.